Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

In Brief

You'd have to be crazy to want to fly perilous missions over enemy territory. So if you don't want to fly them you must be sane. But the only way to get out of flying more missions is to be declared crazy... Such is the impossible bureaucratic logic of Catch-22.

Why you should read it

Possibly the finest wartime satire ever written, Catch-22 is also a sophisticated literary creation, employing multiple points of view and non-chronological narrative. Heller's characters are outrageous and endearing, but above all his wonderfully twisted logic and absurd humor make this a true original in a class of its own.